Banking: A Bit of Embarrassment

"I don't know of a single case where bank
failure has not been attributable to gross misconduct," said the U.S.
Comptroller of the Currency. Jaunty, loquacious James J. Saxon was in
the limelight again and loving it, but what U.S. bankers saw was a
glaring spotlight trained right on them. The occasion was the opening
last week of hearings by Arkansas Senator John McClellan and his
Senate Investigations Subcommittee, familiar probers of the nation's
sinners, into a recent rash of troubles in U.S. banking.

The nation's banks have never been more prosperous, but their very
prosperity has created some problems....